Osceola Has Role In Film About Serial Killer Aileen Wuornos

January 4, 2004|By Mark Pino, Sentinel Columnist

By all accounts, actress Charlize Theron underwent an amazing transformation to play Aileen Wuornos in the movie Monster. Fake teeth, extra pounds and dirty hair turn her from a glamorous beauty into a gritty killer who lived a hard life on the road.

That's real acting. The kind of opportunity Hollywood wannabes will kill to have.

But when Hollywood came knocking at Charles Rogers' door, the longtime Osceola resident passed on his 15 minutes of fame.

The scene moviemakers wanted him and his wife, Fannette, to do wouldn't have lasted that long. The Rogerses still said "No thanks." As the retired 65-year-old trucker tells it, letting Hollywood use your home for a movie is one thing, but appearing on the big screen is quite another.

"They wanted us to act in it," he said. "We were supposed to have a part where we help her get out of her car after she wrecked it in the yard. I didn't want to do it. I'm too old be in movies."

Rogers and his family remain camera-shy, declining the opportunity to be photographed for this story.

But Rogers brags about the star treatment family members received from the film company that made Monster at various locations -- including his home of 32 years off Neptune Road.

"We were here through it all," he said. Family and some friends got free food, autographs and a chance to watch the actors and crew work.

"They did every bit they said they'd do and maybe a little more," said Rogers, who has lived for nearly half of his 65 years in the house on Stroupe Road. "I ain't got no complaints. If someone comes around and says they want to make a movie in your house, you should let them."

Monster, with a $5 million budget that is minuscule compared with those of blockbusters, opened in New York and Los Angeles last month and is already generating a buzz.

Theron, a curvaceous South African blonde, took a huge pay cut, put on 25 pounds and used dental inserts to achieve the killer's gap-toothed grin. She received a Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a drama last month.

The indie flick was selected one of the year's 10 best by the American Film Institute. Theron was voted best actress by the San Francisco Film Critics Circle for her portrayal of Wuornos, a serial killer who became known as the Highway Hooker. The film also has picked up several nominations for Spirit awards -- sort of like Oscars for independent productions.

Rogers said he wasn't too excited originally about having parts of the story of one of the nation's few female serial killers told in his living room.

"I tried to get them to use somebody else's house, but they said, `We want this one.' "

Rogers said the production was hectic.

"They had that poor girl running all over the place."

The house wasn't changed much for the movie, and the company made good when they put a hole in a couch cushion, he added.

He plans to see the movie when it is released locally.

Along with interiors in the house, scenes for the movie were shot along Neptune Road and at a Kissimmee hotel as well as locations in Daytona Beach and Orlando.

Director Patty Jenkins cast Christina Ricci as Wuornos' girlfriend and Bruce Dern as an aged biker pal. Wuornos, who killed six men along Florida highways, was executed in 2002 after dropping all her appeals. Arrested in a Port Orange bar in 1991, she was the subject of books, movies and an opera.

Wuornos changed her story through the years, first saying she killed to defend herself from rape and robbery and later admitting it was she who robbed the men and killed them to remove any witnesses. She confessed to killing seven men, though one body was never found.

Rogers said he had heard bits of Wuornos' story before. The same holds true for Udo Schnee. Movies are becoming old hat for the owner of the Little Diamond Motel on Orange Blossom Trail.

Scenes for the movie Instinct starring Anthony Hopkins were filmed at the hotel, and the same location person came calling when Monster rolled into town. The company rented an efficiency and filmed in the streets around the hotel. Sitting on two acres, the motel had plenty of room behind it for the crew to set up trucks.

Schnee let the crew work.

"I leave them alone. I feel like they have a job to do. I don't run over and try to mingle."

He is also braced for the possibility that scenes shot in the converted room may end up on the proverbial cutting-room floor -- or are unrecognizable to most folks.

That happened in Instinct.

"They bought [rented] half the hotel, pumped the pool empty, took down a fence, remodeled a room. It was amazing to me." Then they had to wait three weeks and do it all over. "They ended up painting the whole hotel, to make it look old. After they were gone, they painted it white again."

That's show biz.

Schnee didn't see Instinct, but he said he definitely plans to see Monster.

The trailer is available at the film's Web site -- monsterfilm.com -- and though the scenes change quickly, there are a few locations that look vaguely familiar. The only way to be sure is going to be to watch the entire film.

Unlike Rogers and Schnee, Osceola officials hope for more than 15 minutes of fame. A recurring role in Hollywood would be quite nice.

It is worth keeping an eye out for show dates, because it looks as if the movie is going to live up to its name and become a real box-office monster. That's one horror story that could have a happy ending for us.